The Internet connects different hardware, operating systems and networks world-wide. Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and (Internet Protocol) IP are the principal communications protocols used for implementing Internet based networking. Nodes on the Internet have unique IP addresses assigned by Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).
An IP address database, as the name suggests, is a database that stores IP addresses. A comprehensive and accurate IP address database can help users of the database identify every computer on the interne correctly. In practice, data stored in IP address database on the Internet is mostly not obtained from IANA directly but through private collections. Thus, IP address information in IP address database is usually not comprehensive and sometimes even erroneous. Furthermore, the typical IP address database lacks detailed geographical location data. In most IP address databases, geographical location data is often on the country or state/province level. For example, an entry in the database may indicate that IP address range 119.253.0.0-119.253.0.15 corresponds to the geographical address of China, or that 119.253.0.10-119.253.0.11 corresponds to the geographical address of Hunan Province, China. Administrators of IP address databases typically have to manually supplement the database with more detailed information and/or correct information in the database. The manual update process can be time consuming, expensive, and error-prone.